Medicine and Health

Buckeye Industries

Disabled Employees Help with Medical Waste Recycling Initiative

In an effort to reduce waste, the Cleveland Clinic’s Green Team established a recycling program in its operating rooms to separate recyclable plastics from non-recyclable items. As the Clinic and University Hospitals alike began gearing up their recycling initiatives, Tom Lewins, executive director of New Avenues to Independence, realized that Buckeye Industries was the missing link in the recycle chain.

Being the only company in Northeast Ohio to offer medical recycling, Buckeye Industries has created a new market for hospital plastic waste and, as a byproduct of sorts, an environmentally beneficial circle of sustainability.

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, geneticists around the world have envisioned advances in biotechnology as well as new medical applications as a result of the identification of 20,000 plus genes that make up human DNA.

Here at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Elias Traboulsi, Director of Graduate Medical Education and board-certified medical geneticist, has his own vision. “Genetics is where medicine is heading,” says Dr. Traboulsi, who sees the Cleveland Clinic at the forefront of genetics based healthcare.

We live in a world of technology-driven medical diagnostics, managed care plans that limit healthcare choices and a decrease in face-to-face contact with healthcare providers.

While most healthcare consumers continue to embrace traditional healthcare practices, some have retreated, thus avoiding the healthcare system altogether. However, a growing trend may offer dissatisfied consumers an alternative choice in safe, quality healthcare.

Ohio State University Medical Center equips its third- and fourth-year medical students, as well as all new residents, with personal digital assistants that put volumes of reference materials, patient histories and student schedules in their lab coat pockets.

Food safety expert Neal Hooker, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, studies consumer perceptions and government regulatory responses to food recalls.

PAMELA WILLITS talked with him about recent recalls and the need for change.

For Brian Smith, director of Ohio State’s Rothenbuhler Honey Bee Research Lab, the value of bees extends well beyond honey. When measured against the insect’s agricultural and scientific value, honey represents a small contribution to the overall economy.

The bee’s actual work, gathering nectar, is critical for agriculture. Honey bee pollination contributes more than $14 billion in U.S. agricultural production. “Without bees, crop yields would be minimal” said Smith.

The demand for honey bee pollination keeps beekeepers and bees alike on the move. As crops come into flower, farmers rent beehives to place in their fields. To be productive, beekeepers must have quality stock and the bees have to be, well, busy as bees.

Last year, Andrea Ward Ross, a 32-year-old Ohio State employee, finished the Dayton Air Force Marathon in seven hours and 44 minutes. This year she did it in six hours and 57 minutes.

Time isn’t the only thing Ross shaved off. Since joining Ohio State’s Comprehensive Weight Management Program, Ross has lost 86 pounds. She plans to lose another 40.

“The picture we paint of obese people is that they aren’t in control,” Ross said. Painful as it was to realize that she was responsible for her condition, she also came to realize that only she could change it.

The Nisonger Center at OSU – one of 60 federally-designated University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities – is a nationally recognized leader in its field. The Center, under the direction of Steven Reiss, PhD, focuses on improving policy and practice for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that may occur following a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, terrorist incident, military combat, violent personal assault or a serious accident.

Fairview Hospital, a member of the Cleveland Clinic Health System and already known as a sophisticated heart center, has now joined forces with the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Foundation to provide world-renowned heart surgery on Cleveland’s West Side. That’s great news for West Side residents.

“The Cleveland Clinic is synonymous with cutting-edge care and great surgical results,” says Mark Valentine, vice president of cardiac services for the Cleveland Clinic Health System – Western Region. “This partnership allows Cleveland Clinic heart surgeons to work with community cardiologists, to ensure Fairview Hospital remains a premier Heart Center on Cleveland’s West Side.”

Fairview Hospital has become one of the first in the Cleveland area to be
recognized by the American Heart Association as a “Get With The Guidelines” Coronary Artery Disease hospital. A hospital-based program, “Get With The Guidelines” is designed to improve outcomes for coronary artery disease patients.